LEGO Dreamzzz 71459 Stable of Dream Creatures [Review]
We started our look at the new LEGO Dreamzzz theme on the dark side with 71469 Nightmare Shark Ship. Today let’s skip nightmares entirely and explore a relaxing place of peace, beauty, and wonder: 71459 Stable of Dream Creatures. There are no Grimspawn, Night Terrors, or other bad dreams here – just giant flowered dream deer, a windmill, and a… a cat cactus? Yeah, a cat cactus. If you’ve watched the first 10 episodes of the TV show… either you spotted something we didn’t, or you’ll recognize the deer, and that’s it. In any case, here’s our review of the set, which contains 681 pieces, 4 minifigures + 2 dreamlings + cat cactus + z-blob, and can be pre-ordered now and will ship August 1st for US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £74.99.
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Unboxing the parts, instructions, and stickers
When the initial Dreamzzz set images started trickling out, this set stood out for the bright and attractive color palette, and the wildly imaginative flora that decorates the stable and the dream deer. The front shows one of the two alternate build endpoints, and the back shows how the base deer build can be decorated two ways.
Inside are 7 numbered bags, a modest sticker sheet, and the instruction manual. The greens and blues really stand out, and the pieces for the orange-yellow ombre roof sort of hide in there.
As we noted in our first Dreamzzz review, it’s worth taking a closer look at the instructions. The cover features a very attractive drawn-style illustration of the set, and the inside continues with illustrations of the minifigures and scenes in a similar style. Again this is not the animation style of the show (that would be absolutely gorgeous but we’re guessing also a ton of work). And the pages are consistently color coded: Dream Chaser (the heroes) minifigures or builds have a yellow background, the Nightmare King’s forces use magenta, the first decision-point build uses blue, the second uses green. This set being free of nightmares there’s no magenta. The illustrations also seem to imply that the characters are each dream crafting parts of the stable.
The build
The stable is built in three main sections – first the central section, followed by the sides. The middle starts with a tiny kitchen, the entrance way, and and a ladder up to the second floor. There you build the most elaborate piece of the stable, the wind-driven grist mill. The stickers, loaf of bread, and sack imply that the mill is producing flour, though we do wonder what dream flour is made from – perhaps those enormous stalks of wheat near the stable? The windmill can be spun from the blades, or by turning the 2×2 brick at the back capped by the Dream Chasers hourglass symbol.
The sides of the stable add a small dining area, and a barn stall (complete with the 1×1 brown swirl “poop piece” … guess dream deer still have regular digestive tracts). The builds are mostly simple stacking, and go quickly. The roof is the most interesting bit of building here, placed at 3 different angles to match the roof line, and transitioning from yellow to bright orange to orange as it descends.
The final part of the build is the dream deer. These have appeared briefly in the first episode of the show, first grazing in a peaceful dreamscape, and then running from Grimspawn as the Nightmare King’s forces appear, looking for dreamers. The creatures in the show are more yellow on their legs, but the flower antlers are quite similar. These are definitely the highlight of the set in our opinion. The neck does look awkward – by which we mean barely attached – from some angles, but that’s the only flaw. It’s huge, compared to a minifigure, and utterly majestic.
The second build option adds large flower petal wings and switches the antlers to giant blue flowers. It’s nice that it’s a different form, not just a color swap. It also looks great.
The minifigures
Izzy, Zoey, and Cooper are the included Dream Chasers. The first wave only has one main variant for each character – Cooper has two different leg options, and capes and utility belts come and go, but the torsos, heads, and hair (besides a helmet or two) are all the same. So even though the Stable seems to be a place of peace and relaxation, Cooper only has either a determined or sleepy expression. All 3 minifigures feature detailed printing on both sides of the torso and the front of the legs, though only Izzy’s are dual-molded, and they each have dual-sided heads. Izzy’s hair is particularly impressive, a dual-molded translucent satiny blue-pink mane.
Mrs. Castillo runs a food truck that sells absolutely amazing-sounding breakfast burritos (Korean short rib, mahi-mahi, … pardon us, we’ll be back after a snack break). Ahem. The new “little old lady” mold is adorable, but the necessity of the built-in backpack is a little unfortunate for reusability. It should make for some interesting connection points though! Through the first ten episodes of the show, Mrs. Castillo shows up occasionally in the Dream World, and is aware of knowing the Dream Chasers, but doesn’t seem to be a dream crafter herself. However in the sets, she has her own hourglass – which are to dream crafting how wands are to magic; you can do it without them but it’s a lot harder. Her walking stick/staff incorporates one, though it doesn’t have the hourglass symbol capping it that the other Dream Chasers do.
Z-Blob and the Dreamlings use a body mold that’s also shared with the Grimspawn throughout the theme. The cleverest feature of this mold is that each armpit is a clip connection, able to hold on to bars including many accessories. Now, most of these lil’ dudes will fall over if you give them a sword, but that’s another matter. Z-Blob has the slightly creepy green head with eyes but no mouth (Mateo never drew him with a mouth, so when he comes to life in the Dream World he doesn’t have one there either and can’t talk), along with a transparent green slime veil – which does fit on regular minifigures if you like. This is probably the Blob’s cutest form in our opinion. The Dreamlings have fun purple mushroom printed “caps”, along with a double-sided head that even has what looks like golden mycelium printing continuing on the back. Someone is going to make an army of these and it’s going to be the most terrifying cute thing ever.
There’s also the Cat Cactus. It’s cute! It hasn’t shown up in the show yet though, and LEGO’s set description doesn’t give us any additional information, so we’re not sure what else to say about it. It seems to be associated with Mrs. Castillo, since it also appears in her Turtle Van.
The finished model
The alternate build choices for this set are minimal – mostly the deer and the tree swap foliage, with the bits coming up from above the barn stall swapping also. If you’re conservative in what you take apart, you can keep most of the assemblies together – the blue flowers are used as-is, for example. It’s not bad, but mostly it makes us want two deer so I can have both the blue and magenta versions built at the same time! Your reviewer is seriously considering getting the pieces for a second deer for just that reason (the eyes are printed, so at least you don’t need to also get another sticker sheet if you want to do this…).
Either way the foliage looks good. The back of the stable, however, is very open and looks somewhat unfinished. If you bought two copies of the set, putting them back to back would leave a gap even if you took out the slight concave forward curve of the building. There are certainly play opportunities, but the windmill is the only real feature, and much of the play revolves around the deer and things outside the stable.
Conclusion and recommendation
This is a really lovely set. The colors are bright and fit the Dream World perfectly. The foliage is imaginative and wild and gorgeous. The Dreamlings are mushroom-ily adorable. The included minifigures are highly detailed. And we’ve been clear on how much we like the deer. Unfortunately, it also comes with an $80 list price, and … we’re not quite sure why. Piece count isn’t everything, but this set isn’t packed with large pieces and doesn’t have any exclusive minifigures. It would feel much more attractively priced at $70, but our preference would be to have included a second dream deer. That would add a ton of play and make the set feel like very good value. As-is, we don’t think anyone will be disappointed in this set, but we can’t recommend it as a set to pick above others in the theme at list price. And that’s a shame, because it captures the gentle side of the dream world so beautifully.
71459 Stable of Dream Creatures contains 681 pieces, 4 minifigures, 2 dreamlings, a cat-cactus, and a z-blob. It can be pre-ordered now, and will ship starting August 1st from the LEGO Shop and worldwide for US $79.99 | CAN $99.99 | UK £74.99 or from Amazon. It may also be available from third-party sellers on eBay.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
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